


The Happy Prince and The Kindly Crane

by Genesis3Chi



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Anthropomorphic, Gen, Happy Ending, Happy Prince AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2020-06-22 11:22:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19666459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Genesis3Chi/pseuds/Genesis3Chi
Summary: The Happy Prince keeps watch over the small town of Hasetsu, but he will need some help from a passing crane to put his plan into action.A loving recreation of Oscar Wilde's short story 'The Happy Prince'





	The Happy Prince and The Kindly Crane

****High above the small town of Hasetsu stood a castle, although it wasn't really a castle. And on top of that castle that wasn't a castle, there was a prince, who wasn't a prince.

For you see this castle was, in fact, a ninja house, and the prince was a statue, a beautiful statue of the young lord who was the star pupil, had travelled thousands of miles to learn the art.

He was so excellent a ninja that there were no other records of his appearance or name, just this statue, and its engraved title “The Happy Prince.” The Happy Prince stood tall enough to see every house and garden, every workspace and park, every fishing boat and farm in all of Hasetsu. His eyes were made from sapphires, the clear and powerful blue let him see for miles and miles, and through obstacles with no deterioration in his sight.

The Happy Prince had watched over Hasetsu for a very long time, but no-one was quite sure how long, he had just always been there. In all the time the Happy Prince had watched over Hasetsu, it had been a small town full of happy people, selling their fish and promoting the health benefits of their hot springs, but hard times had started to fall on the people of Hasetsu. Not too long ago the fish started to run out, and the fishermen had to work harder and harder to find fish, had to travel further and further out to sea, so far that the Happy Prince could no longer see them or feel that they were somehow safe in his protection – not that he could actually do anything, being a statue. Not all of the fishermen came home anymore, and there were a lot more tears on the dock, spouses and children watched the storms and wept, and the Happy Prince wished he wasn’t stuck with a gilded smile.

The fishermen weren’t the only people struggling. Over time every business in Hasetsu felt the pinch, as terrible weather hurt their crops, and disaster after disaster scared away all the tourists and travellers from other places of the world. The Happy Prince was sad to see the livelihoods and lives that were lost, the families who lost their friends and loved ones. Some of the people of Hasetsu left, but others refused, or couldn’t afford to go.

The Happy Prince wanted to do something about it, but what could he do? He was only a statue.

The Happy Prince sighed as he watched another lamenting family lay one of their own to eternal rest, his heart broke for them, and he only wanted to close his eyes in sadness, to stop seeing the horror around him, if only for a moment.

A loud crack resounded through the castle below, and his left eye splintered right through the middle, spidery legs working their way through the precious stone and obscuring his vision. Small shards of sapphire rained down from the statue, tumbling down the ornate and structured roofs of the castle to the floor below, where one of the few remaining students – who had travelled miles for love of the sport, leaving his beloved grandpa behind – picked up the pieces, with a jump and a yell that it was his lucky day. He looked up at the Happy Prince, squinting in the bright sun until he saw the Prince’s broken eye.

“Well, thanks I suppose. You’re getting old now geezer.”

As the boy walked back to his temporary home, the fading sun hit the broken shards remaining in the Prince’s eye, looking rather like a wink.

…

A crane danced through the clouds, swooping and gliding and enjoying the warm air. He was migrating for his first breeding season and was very excited for his first chance to dance for someone special. He had practised his loops and extensions for months, on how to stretch out his legs just so, and curl his neck so beautifully into patterns to express his love.

Although he didn’t know it yet, the crane was very very lost, he was miles and miles south and east of his intended destination, having followed the trail of the local cranes, rather than the pattern of his own’s migration.

The crane ceased to dance when a blue light refracted through the clouds, shining rather like the aurora borealis he knew from his home in the north. He was nearly there, he thought to himself, getting himself ready to leap into the sky and fly once more, straight toward the blue light and hopefully his soon-to-be mate for life.

Gliding neatly through the sky and admiring the beautiful colours around him, the crane followed the source until he came upon the statue, iridescent in the sunset, the golden plate on its surface glowing, the jewelled eyes and flowing silver strands of hair that looked to almost blow in the breeze so wonderfully crafted they were.

The crane came to a gentle land on the hand of the statue, tilting his head to admire the handiwork of it all. He honked and crooned over the beauty of it all.

“Why, thank you!”

The crane jumped into the air and flapped for a moment in shock, ready to fly away.

“Oh! Please don’t go!”

The crane cautiously lowered back onto the raised hand of the statue, looking closely at its face.

“You cannot be talking,” the crane said, his voice reverberating through the metal.

“Can I not?” The statue replied, and the crane saw its lips did not move, and the metal never shifted, but he could clearly hear the voice.

“ _You_ are a statue.”

“And you are a bird.” The light hit the broken eye just right again, the shattered pieces winking brightly.

The crane shuffled his feet a little, rearranging his wings before mustering courage and puffing out his chest and raising his head high to show off his full glory, “I am a _crane_ I will have you know.”

“A very beautiful crane at that,” the statue agreed. “But I need your help.”

“My help?”

“Yes, for as you have observed, I am a statue and cannot move.”

“What could I possibly do for a statue?”

The statue was quiet for a moment – it was always quiet being a statue, but the sudden silence in the crane’s mind felt like a pensive pause. A sigh gusted from the statue, and though he could find no source, the crane felt it as a cold wind through his feathers, chilling him.

“I may not be able to move, but I stand here day and night, and I see the lives of the people of Hasetsu. They have fallen on hard times, and there is not enough food, or enough money, and soon there will be no people left and I will be all alone. They will run away, or starve, or die at sea, and I will have no one and nothing in all the world and will just be like any other statue.”

The crane bowed his head to hear the story, saddened.

“I want to help, I am covered in gold and jewels and every valuable thing. Today by chance I was able to give a small piece of the sapphire of my eye to the young boy who studies below, so tonight he can have a nice bed and good food. I would like you to give him the rest, so he can send it to his sick grandfather, the boy worries about him all the time. He has no one else.”

The crane considered this before nodding, “I will do this for you because the boy deserves to learn without worrying for his family. But then I really must find my way to the breeding grounds.”

The statue’s smile seemed a little more real as his voice touched the crane’s mind, “Thank you, crane.”

“Yuuri,” the crane whispered, “My name is Yuuri.”

“Well then Yuuri, please take my eye and give it to the young man. You will find him in an inn if you follow the road by the sakura trees and the hot springs.”

Yuuri flew up to the statue’s face, and with a muttered apology plucked out the remains of the sapphire. He flew over Hasetsu to the grove of sakura trees and felt the steam rising from the hot water as he landed. He looked through every window until he found one with a teenage boy inside, looking drawn and exhausted, malnourished but hardened to it. Yuuri landed on the windowsill and dropped the gem onto the table in the room, the clunk drawing the lad’s attention.

“Hey! Shoo! What are you doing in here?!”

Yuuri flew away in fright before he could hear the boy pick up the stone and yell, “Hey! Thanks!”

Yuuri returned to the statue of the Happy Prince and said, “I have done the thing you asked, though the boy was not very grateful.”

The statue would have smiled were he not always smiling, “That’s just how he is, but he is grateful really, even if he doesn’t show it. I can see it.”

Yuuri nodded, accepting this, “If that is all, I will go to my breeding grounds now, I got lost but I must find my way soon.” The crane spread its wings, ready to take flight.

The statue exclaimed “Wait! I need your help!”

Yuuri sighed, tucking his wings once more, “I will help you with one more thing, then I need to go, I’m probably already late.”

“If you’re already late, then a little later won’t hurt any worse.” The statue seemed to smirk. “There is a fisherman who hasn’t come home for a week, his wife and three children are running out of food, and it is too to be their birthdays. Please give them the ruby buttons on my jacket, so their mother can buy food and something nice for their special day. Children should not have to go without on their birthday.”

The crane nodded, “I will do this for you because no child should be sad on their birthday.”

“Thank you, Yuuri,” the statue said.

So Yuuri flew up and plucked the four ruby buttons from the Happy Prince’s jacket front, holding two in each foot.

“If you go down to the sea where all the _little_ boats are, not the big trawlers, there is one called the Mitsugo. The house next to it is theirs.”

Yuuri flew away toward the sea, finding the little boats and eventually spotting one covered in faded painted flowers and little handprints, clearly beloved and well-used. Landing on its bow he hopped toward the house and heard three girls complaining about their sore hungry bellies. Depositing the rubies by the front door, Yuuri tapped the wood with his beak and flew away, afraid the children might pull his wings if they saw him.

If he had stayed a moment longer, he would have heard the mother come to the door, looking harried and stressed, one child on her hip and red rims to her eyes. And when she noticed the rubies, her sobs of gratitude, scooping them up and calling to the other two girls that they would go shopping for bread and meat and cake, and maybe a toy or two.

Yuuri returned to the Happy Prince statue, saying “I have delivered the rubies for you, Happy Prince, so now I will say goodbye.”

The Happy Prince said “Happy Prince is not my name. I had nearly forgotten, but my name was Viktor. Please stay for the night and keep me company, don’t leave until the morning.”

Yuuri nodded, “All right Viktor, I will sleep here for the night with you, and leave in the morning.” He flew down to the statue’s feet and settled down to sleep, drawn back to wakefulness by a mournful sigh.

“No one has said my name for so long.”

Yuuri looked up to ask “How can a statue have a name? How do you speak? If I am going to stay with you for the night you should at least answer me that.”

“I was not always a statue. I came from a land far to the north of this one. My family had money and I had anything I could ever ask for, but I never had a purpose, or excitement in my life. Then I heard stories about the ninjas of Hasetsu. How they could move unseen and climb and jump and run and fight, and I wanted to learn too. So I came all the way here, left my family and found a new life. I was so happy.” The statue’s warm voice turned cold and bitter. “But I was too good at it, soon I was so skilled people couldn’t see me anymore. I won so many awards and competitions and tournaments that they covered me in gold and jewels and all my winnings and I was put up on this pedestal because I was so much _better_ than everyone else, so much _higher_ and _above_ them all.”

Yuuri cried and wrapped a wing around the statue’s leg in a weak attempt at an embrace, “I’m so sorry Viktor,” he said.

Viktor went quiet and the sad silence echoed horribly so Yuuri began to tell Viktor of his adventurous first migration. Yuuri talked on and on about the places he had seen, how he had followed the wrong species of crane and ended up far too far south, and how the Viktor’s beautiful light through the clouds had drawn him in. He spoke of his mother and father and their silly mating dance that was more of a wiggling cancan than a voluptuous and sensual feast of desire.

Viktor asked of Yuuri’s own mating dance and Yuuri’s tired voice became invested and excited again, telling of how hard he had practised, how his friends had helped him learn the styles of other birds to become as unique as he could possibly be. Viktor has nothing but praise for the efforts of the crane, and said how he would dearly love to see Yuuri’s mating dance one day, that he expected it to be spectacular, the most enthralling sight anyone had ever seen. Yuuri was about to respond in the same enthusiasm before he remembered only his mate and eventual family should ever see his full dance, that it would be bad luck to have an outsider see his perfected movements. Yuuri sadly told Viktor how he could never show it to him.

Viktor went quiet and sad again but acquiesced some things are never meant to be.

Yuuri, at last, fell asleep, and his dreams were full of beautiful movements, his neck intertwined with a swan’s, and their glorious white wings beating in time with each other.

In the morning Yuuri awoke and went in search of food. Viktor directed him to check on the young man and triplets and their mother whilst on his search. Yuuri first went to the grove of sakura trees in hopes of berries or insects around but found nothing, so went to look in on the blond teenager. The teen was eating a hearty breakfast with a grin on his face, and on that of the innkeeper, a plump and friendly woman. The boy gestured to the crane through the open shoji door talking with his mouth full to the woman who looked thoughtful for a moment before disappearing. Yuuri scanned the hot waters for fish and despaired at the lack of them, his stomach rumbled from so much flying when he’d had nothing to eat.

A fish landed in front of him with a splash. Yuuri startled and jumped back, flapping in fear, looked up to see the innkeeper returning indoors, and a thumbs up from the young man who went right back to his meal. Yuuri squawked happily and fished it out and began to eat.

Happy to have eaten, Yuuri flew to see the small family for Viktor before he left, thinking it was the least he could do for the poor statue, confined to its plinth. The young girls were singing Happy Birthday to each other, and delicious smells wafted from their house, fresh bread and strawberry jam. The mother saw the crane through her window, bowed in its direction and carefully placed a small piece of cake on the windowsill. Yuuri was taken aback but approached just enough to snatch up the piece and take off with it, savouring the flavour as he returned to the prince statue to say goodbye.

Yuuri landed on Viktor’s hand once again, bowed his head in greeting and said, “I’m off on my journey north now for my first mating season, I just hope I’m not too late.”

“Yuuri, dear Yuuri,” the statue said, voice warm and affectionate, “I have one more task for you, but you can do it as you go, for I do not want you to be alone, you must find your mate.”

Thinking of the happy children and the tearful mother and the innkeeper and the young ninja, Yuuri nodded, “What last thing can I do for you Viktor?”

Viktor seemed to take in a breath for courage, coming to a decision, “I would have you take my hair. My hair was prized so very long ago, everyone who met me would touch it and say it was beautiful as silver, and that I was the most handsome man they had seen. Give a piece of my hair to anyone you see who is hungry, or poor, or sick, anyone who is suffering or struggling.”

Yuuri flew to the top of Viktor’s head, “It is a shame, your hair is beautiful.”

“I love my hair, but I would love it more if the people below were happy, and healthy, and fed. My hair can do this for them if I cannot. Please take my hair before you go. Then I have a gift for you, just for you, to thank you for all you have done and will do.”

Yuuri gathered the hairs from Viktor’s head, till he was quite bald and drab and there was no sparkle to him left save for one bright blue eye. The crane carefully placed the hairs into his wings, tucked neatly into his feathers so he could fly, for there were far too many to hold in his feet. He spread his wings carefully, testing that he was indeed safe to fly this way when Viktor spoke once more.

“Yuuri, dear Yuuri, please take my eye to give to your mate, for I am sorry I have kept you so long.”

Yuuri blinked in shock, his beak clacking shut. “I cannot take your eye Viktor! You will be blind. I cannot leave you blind, you are already bald and you have no jacket buttons, and you cannot move, I will not make it so you cannot even see.”

Viktor sighed, “I have seen enough of the world, I want to know you are happy with your mate, and maybe sometimes hear the laughter of the children you help. I do not want to see suffering anymore. Please accept my gift Yuuri. Take my eye and love your mate. Dance together and be happy.”

Yuuri slumped, but he could do no more for the once happy prince statue. He leaned down to pull the sapphire from the statue and it lost all of its magic. The smile still remained forced into the metal but it was so fake now with no sparkle behind it. The beautiful pink jacket was dull without its ruby buttons, and the height of the statue seems ridiculous and wrong without the long flowing silver hair. Taking the eye into one foot, Yuuri gave one last nuzzle to the statue’s bald head and gave a fond goodbye.

“I will miss you Viktor, but I must find my mate.”

“Go Yuuri,” the statue’s voice was so faint now, sad and quiet, but assertive.

So with a heavy heart and laden with treasures, the crane flew away, dropping slivers of silver into the hands of the needy he passed. The people of Hasetsu saw a crane fly past covered in shining silver, raining it down like manna from heaven, and began to tell stories of fortune and gold, and rumours began of pleasing cranes leading to great luck and prosperity. They all hoped one day the northern crane would return and bless them all once more. But with the silver in their hands, the people of Hasetsu revitalised the town, the gems went a long way toward the young man finishing his education, and the triplets and their mother were able to amaze the father when he finally drifted home, clinging to a piece of driftwood, with a feast for dinner, warm new clothes, and new equipment.

Hasetsu flourished with the love of the Happy Prince, and the help of the crane.

…

Yuuri made his way at last to the breeding grounds to find all the cranes his own age already courted, paired and mated. He constantly called and danced and approached anyone he saw, but the few who had not found their own true match yet were not interested. They said he was too strange, too warm, too exotic, his dance not enough of a crane’s dance. They said he sounded too much like something else, his honks more like a human voice than the bugle call of a bird.

Yuuri spent mating season alone and despairing, for he had not liked any of the other cranes either, male or female, their calls had all been too aggressive, their dances too fast, and something had always been not quite right. Their cold characters repelled him, no one greeted him with affection or kindness, he was constantly berated for getting lost and being late.

When the season ended and the fledglings were ready, the migration to the wintering grounds began. Yuuri was already too cold in the breeding grounds, but he was lonely and bullied amongst his peers now, and the idea of travelling with them was abhorrent, unthinkable. He did not know what to do, whether to stay and perhaps perish in the cold or go somewhere new. After the group left without him while he slept one night, he drifted alone, generally making his way south once again and thinking sadly on his plight.

He landed on a roof to rest his wings and looked at the jewel still held in one foot. No potential mate had had any care for it. They said it was too clear, it reflected too much light, was too bright, not colourful enough, not interesting enough, too smoothed by travel, not the beautifully cut stone it could be. Yuuri stroked a toe over the beautiful sapphire, he could not understand how the other cranes didn’t see how prettily it sparkled, how clear with no impurities, how soft the roundness was to hold.

He missed Viktor, missed the strange empty sound of the statue’s voice in his mind.

“—tearing it down. It’s kinda sad really, that statue was really nice when I arrived, all sparkly and shit, but now it’s just a bald old man it’s gonna get melted for the metal, something about a plaque to some crappy mayor or other who’s sorted the weather alerts.”

Yuuri knew that voice, he’d heard it before. He hopped down the side of the roof to look over the edge, seeing what he suspected, the young man from Hasetsu! He was sitting next to an old man in a rocking chair who nodded at every word the teen spoke.

“The first bit was actually the eye that broke and fell on me if you remember Dyudya? The little bits fell in my hair and I had to wash with a bucket to collect the bits in – don’t wanna lose them! I paid to finish my course, and to come back and see you now, and I have a bit more still for food back in Hasetsu. And this crane thing came crashing into my room with the other chunk in its beak, just left it there for me – gave it a fish the next day since it was prowling around looking hungry, seemed only fair.”

“You did a good deed my little Yurochka. Cranes are the spirits of the honourable dead, you must respect them.”

“I will try, Grandpa.”

“Good boy, Yura.”

Yuuri had heard all he needed to for his heart to start pounding and breath to start coming faster. They were going to tear Viktor down? But they can’t! He’s alive! Yuuri launched himself from the roof, flying as fast as his wings could carry him back toward where he thought Hasetsu was.

The sapphire caught Yuri’s eye as it glinted in the talons of a crane that flew past his dedushka’s window. The boy’s mouth fell open, speechless, and he started to maybe believe in spirits after all.

Yuuri flew non-stop for days and arrived in Hasetsu exhausted, wings aching and feeling ready to fall off. He clutched the jewel between his toes, just hoping and begging and praying he wasn’t too late, not that he had any idea what to do either way. But he had to try. For Viktor, because Viktor always wanted to try and help no matter what the cost.

There was no bright blue light in the clouds, no refracted red or silver gleaming to guide his way. He almost thought he was in the wrong town, that he’d gotten lost again and had come to the wrong place. Because there was no great statue atop the castle, the roof was bare. Yuuri wailed, his honking calls waking the sleeping residents as he cried in despair, circling the castle before sighting the statue in the metal-workers’ yard, scuffed and bruised as metal could be, a horrific crack marring the chest, like a gaping wound.

Yuuri zoomed to the statue’s side, fluttering and flapping helplessly as he landed on its mangled chest. Within the cavernous and jagged cavity was a jumbled collection of lead shards, horrific splinters that looked like they had been maliciously smashed over and over.

“Viktor?” he asked, though he knew it was hopeless.

There was no response, just the statue’s eternal smile, cold as the metal it had returned to being, nothing but lifeless bronze.

Tears dripped from Yuuri’s eyes as he gently put the sapphire into the hollow the decimated leaden heart once resided in. “You gave me this to give to my mate. I didn’t want anyone else, and they didn’t want me.” Yuuri sobs, “I wanted you to be my mate.”

Yuuri bowed his head and his tears flowed down across his feathers and dripped off his beak, graceless and ugly in their volume. The droplets collected on the statue as he continued to grieve.

What Yuuri did not see during his lament, was the way each tear that landed on the bronze tainted it pink, and any that fell to the jagged edge of the gaping chasm of the Happy Prince’s breast transmuted, turning thick and gelatinous and golden. The molten gold began to fill the opening, fusing the metal sides and closing the wound.

“Yuuri!”

Yuuri fell backwards in shock, eyes bulging at the sight of a very human, very living, and very very naked man. Bluer than blue eyes and silver hair now only as long as his ears and flopping over one eye.

Trying to get his feet back under him, Yuuri squawked, “Viktor?” His honk incredulous and absolutely bamboozled, grief put aside for sheer confusion.

“So it would seem!” Viktor grinned, and his mouth was a whole new shape to that of his cast form, an expression Yuuri had never seen the face make, there would soon be a whole host of new expressions, but this was to be the most common. Viktor’s mouth curved into a large and glorious heart, and his eyes shone brightly.

“You’re alive!” Yuuri cried, hopping onto Viktor’s thighs and wrapping his wings around the newly-human man as best he could, wishing desperately that he could hug him properly.

Viktor gently embraced the bird, smiling so much it hurt and rubbing his face into the feathery shoulder. A single pristine blue tear escaped him in his joy, hitting the bird whose feathers began to slough off and vanish as his form changed to match. As the two embraced and nuzzled into each other the feathers melted away, leaving only a man embracing his mate.

…

None of the residents of Hasetsu know what happened to the statue that once stood on the castle, or the crane that had blessed the poor of the once-impoverished town, but everyone knows Viktor and Yuuri, the most lovesick couple in town, who are always dancing with each other and spreading their kindness and charity to any and all who will accept it.

**Author's Note:**

> My first fic in the YOI fandom, only three years late! Never posted to Ao3 before, and haven't written fic in a while so be gentle :D


End file.
